Super weekend

Life, work and travel has got in the way of my game time recently, but the weekend provided the chance to pit two superhero romps against each other.

It's almost a shame that Prototype and inFamous have lobbed onto the market at the same time considering how similar they are in many respects.

Both are certainly worthy of your cash and time.

This week I also plan to prove I ain't 'fraid of no movie license, and get stuck into Ghostbusters on PS3.

What have you been playing lately?

Posted
by Jason HillJune 15, 2009 7:12 AM

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I've been having Gridiron withdrawls since I broke my ankle and been playing some more of Madden 09.

Had 3 mates over last night and we ended up playing 3 very close games till half past midnight. Needless to say I'm quite tired now because of the 5 hours of sleep.

Hopefully my Dead Space oprder arrices soon. I picked it up for under $60 when sanity has a sale on.

Posted by: Cannon on June 15, 2009 7:55 AM

I was close to picking up Prototype, since while Infamous just doesn't interest me at all, Prototype looks mighty interesting. Though admittedly I do believe I'm looking at some aspects of the game (such as killing someone and stealing their identity) which may take a back seat to the action.

Still, I stuck to my guns and didn't buy this weekend, I've been busy playing through Mass Effect again. But not much gaming was done this weekend, as I had parties etc. to attend.

The extended family has hatched a plan to acquire a buck hunter machine, also, which could be an entertaining endeavour.

Posted by: InstinctSage on June 15, 2009 8:13 AM

Spent most the weekend playing Overlord in preparation for the release of the sequel.

Posted by: Kel on June 15, 2009 8:26 AM

Picked up a copy of Gears 2 during the EB sales recently (was $60 for the SE version) and had a couple of cracks playing Horde. Didn't realise just how long it'd take trying to get to Wave 50, team crapped out on Wave 46 and we'd been playing for the best part of 3 hours! Ouch.

A mate just picked up Red Faction: Guerrilla and said that it was a blast, may have to check it out.

Posted by: Steve on June 15, 2009 8:29 AM

borrowed my brother's copy of Force Unleashed, only played it on sunday but i'm enjoying what i've seen so far. Haven't encountered any of the dreaded control issues yet.

Posted by: Ultimate Russ on June 15, 2009 8:38 AM

Red faction hasnt gotten out of my console since buying it . Enjoying it allot . Prototype was a maybe buy for me but I'm seeing a few mixed reactions to it . I think I'll rent it 1st to check out once I'm done with red faction .

I read last week that the 360 ghostbusters is confirmend not region locked so 360 owners here wont have to wait if they dont want to .

Posted by: Mongey on June 15, 2009 8:48 AM

Just started playing the Dawn of War II campaign in co-op. It's a bit different what with the whole base building being removed, but still fairly good. Annoying bug with the game: Everytime we tried DoW2 over LAN it'd time out. We had to play over the net from inside the same room.

Other than that, a bit of GunGame on Counterstrike Source and working to complete Persona 3 FES. I got quite far in Persona 3, but than bought FES and started all over again.

And after that I have at least another 15-20 JRPG's to work on, including FF VIII which I never got around to completing, mainly because a friend accidentally deleted my game where I was up to the third disc. That and I seem to be obsessed with max levelling my characters in JRPG's. Every single time I've played it Squall is at least level 80 before I go to Timber for the first SeeD mission. The first time I even fought Diablos I was already level 100.

Posted by: _Alpha_ on June 15, 2009 9:28 AM

I actually picked up Resistance 2 on the cheap from JB played it last night am loving it so far. I also put some more time into Pokemon Platnium.

Posted by: Angry_Los_Ganados on June 15, 2009 9:35 AM

Cracked open LBP for the first time in ages with my housemate and managed to get plenty of lulz.

Little bit of Plants Vs Zombies and some Wii Bowling.

Still waiting for my classic controller to arrive so I can start OOT.

Posted by: singo the dingo on June 15, 2009 9:40 AM

picked up protoype and gave it a good flogging saturday. immensely fun causing havoc, even if the city feels a little stale and generic compared to gtaIV's version of manhattan. "superpowers" are good, exp. points provide an rpg-lite upgrading system and bonus missions (run here under this time limit, kill this many zombies in this amount of time etc) can be an exciting distraction.

missions are a little bit boring and i'm a bit worried about the life-span of the game - it could get old quickly. but for now it's still fun throwing people at helicopters/cars at people/industrial air-conditioning units (!) at monsters and any combination of the above.

despite having prototype, i still found myself spending more time than i can fathom playing a free MMO called 9dragons (a martial arts grinder based on ancient china). i still can't figure out if it's because prototype got boring or i'm just an idiot with a fetishistic penchant for monotonously pressing buttons over and over ...

Posted by: nate on June 15, 2009 10:17 AM

Spent the weekend thrashing GTA IV. I know I said I wasn't that impressed, but my fellow Screen Players were right as always and the game picked up around the second island. It has now sunk its hook deep. I also played a little Portal at times as a sorbet to cleanse the palate.

Posted by: luverly_5pam on June 15, 2009 10:27 AM

Getting weapon unlocks in Team Fortress 2 (on PC)..which has been fun. Any playing around with the 2000AD and Team ICO costumes on Little Big Planet.

Posted by: Symon on June 15, 2009 10:32 AM

Finally started part of the Saints Row 2 story (after spending about 25 hours doing most of the activities) and completed the Ronin story arc. Cool game. I've got it cranked up on hard, since I have unlimited ammo with most of my weapons now.

@Jason

While the new Ghostbusters game is a franchise game, it's ahrdly what I would consider a 'movie tie in'. For starters it's been made, what 20 years(?!) after the fact, and therefore would have suffered little of the issues that typically plague movie tie in games (short development cycle, low budget...). It's supposed to be good in any case. Will you be reviewing it?

(oh and where is your 'new' day job?)

Posted by: barrymoves on June 15, 2009 10:38 AM

I spent two late nights telling myself "Just one more turn" on Medieval II: Total War. I don't usually play the long campaign but I'm doing it just this once to conquer the Americas.

Also unlocked our last figher (Jigglypuff) in Super Smash Brothers Brawl, which unlocked a new batch of content we haven't had the chance to look at yet.

I spent a bit of time reading very mixed comments on Gland Slam Tennis with the Wii's Motion Plus. Seems like either some people just don't get it, or else some people are much more tolerant of its shortcomings. It put the brakes on me ruching out to buy it anyway.

Payday finally came around, and at long last I was able to take advantage of some sales currently on-going...

"Picked up a copy of Gears 2 during the EB sales recently (was $60 for the SE version)"

Posted by: Steve on June 15, 2009 8:29 AM

Yeah I saw that too Steve, but ended up heading over to JB where the standard edition of Gears of War 2 was also $60... and that collectors box IMO is dead ugly & impractical.

Also picked up COD4 (finally) & EndWar; which I am very excited to finally try out how effective the voice commands really are.

But really Saturday was devoted to my ploughing through COD4... and after only taking me 6 hours (despite the countless deaths that made me feel old) I came away feeling pretty underwhelmed, is this really the same game everyone was raving about 18 months ago?

Now for a shameful admission... also picked up Pokemon Platinum; the first one I have played since Gold nearing 8-9 years ago... And yeah its pokemon, its pretty great. Not far off to call it the best RPG series of all time.

Finally, went thru 1/2 of the campaign for Gears of War 2 yesterday with a mate... that has me a little underwhelmed aswell.

I feel the first game was better constructed in its pacing and knew how to let the action roll on. Gears 2 is very stop-start, schizophrenic...

Posted by: Darryn on June 15, 2009 10:58 AM

Bought Mass Effect (PC) at the EB sale, and have been giving that a go over the weekend. I also went back to Fallout 3 for bit as well.

But mostly I was servicing my Trackmania addiction, which has got a little out of control. Damn world ranking systems.

Posted by: Falooza on June 15, 2009 11:00 AM

Picked up Ninety-Nine Nights on Friday for $17.98 from JB and was playing that over the weekend.

It is very much a Japanese hack and slash. Mindless button mashing, melodramatic story line (without very much substance) and lots of repetition.

The equivalent of the average Hollywood action movie, check your brain in at the door.

Posted by: Smoolander on June 15, 2009 11:06 AM

@ barrymoves

Likewise, I've been cranking out Saints Row 2 and having lots of fun. My only concern is level 6 of one of the drug runs...I get stuck with unlimited ammo for a crappy pistol and not much ammo for other weapons. But all in all, a fun game!

@ Sean
Sims 3 worth it? While I enjoyed 2, I felt that after periods of time, I lost interest as I felt it was a bit limited.

Posted by: Joka on June 15, 2009 11:13 AM

Just got back from a month overseas, during which time I started and finished the first Prof Layton and Phantom Hourglass.

This past weekend a bit of Gears 2 (horde) and Fable II on the weekend. Also sank a bit of time into watching old music videos on Vidzone.

Posted by: Infinitum on June 15, 2009 11:18 AM

Picked up Chinatown Wars again, not sure why I put it down in the first place. Outstanding achievement.

Also bit more of Dragon Quest Swords on the Wii.

Posted by: death to nerds on June 15, 2009 11:51 AM

Street Fighter 4 against housemates and numerous visitors all weekend. My mate bought over his PS3 so we could unlock all the characters on his yesterday.

My thumbs have never been stronger...

SHORYUKEN!!!

Posted by: munky_punch on June 15, 2009 11:55 AM

@ Joka
I think so. I did not play Sims 2 so can't compare it to that. But this seems to have a lot of freedom. You can travel around town and even buy property. The relationship dynamics are very interesting as well.

Posted by: Sean on June 15, 2009 11:56 AM

Picked up resistance 2 on the weekend for $50 and finished it off. What a great game.

Have also been playing the fight night 4 demo. It will be great once the full version comes out in a couple of weeks.

Posted by: Mickyb on June 15, 2009 12:17 PM

I've been getting somewhat hard over the new nvidia beta drivers (i got them for vista x64bit) that have included full 3d implementation for red and blue 3d glasses. They have a list of well over a hundred games that support it.

The red and blue tone pretty much removes most of the colour in the game, but its not completely necessary for some.

I tried a bunch of games with the following results...

Left 4 Dead: worked well, it took on a darkish brown tinge that suited the art direction.

Team Fortress 2: Absolutely excellent. The cell shading made the objects and structures very clear with impressive depth.

COD: World At War: While it has some great Depth Of Field effects. The art direction of the game made this very muddled to play with a general colour of total brown. A couple of maps were almost unplayable.

Portal: Epic win. Flinging with the 3d effect was brilliant.

Counter Strike:
worked well, the crosshair let it down. You almost need to go complete iron sights on this one.

Battlefield 2: Strangely, this was the clear winner due to the FOV of the character. Turrets, objects, everything was super enhanced to make it very 'in your face' 3d.
The only problem was (and this is a big problem) that it renderred your weapon model with way too much gap btw red and blue in comparison to the environments and objects, making the weapon very blurry and very difficult to use.

There's a bunch of support for other games as well. Well worth a look.

cheers,

NS.

Posted by: NS on June 15, 2009 12:19 PM

@barrymoves & Joka,

I too have been thrashing Saints Row 2. I finished the Ronin missions a couple of weeks ago, but have still spent most of my time just generally wreaking havoc.

I don't know if you guys have stumbled across it yet, but there's a Borat-styled mankini in one of the clothing stores. I can't remember which one, but it sure looks glorious on my created character.

I was sold on this game within ten minutes. On my very first game I stumbled across a juggler busking in High End Retail.

I'm a juggler myself, and was so delighted to see him that I pepper-sprayed him instantly.

Found my first streaker, too - a young blonde running around the University precint.

I've been trying to convince my mates to pick up SR2 but without luck. If either of you guys feel like doing some of the co-op achievements I'd be keen?

Posted by: mdjuggler on June 15, 2009 12:30 PM

Been playing Fable II for the last few days as a pure, oody two-shoes hero. Have to try being not-so nice. Also picked up Too Human on Friday but haven't had a chance to play.

Posted by: Kidfla5h on June 15, 2009 12:32 PM

Finally upgraded my PC picked up CoD4 in the sales. Not my sort of game, I'm more a Battlefield kind of guy than a CS one. Done well though (thanks to the Uzi) and make the top three players most rounds.

Might exchange it for assasin's creed or would I do better in returning it for CoD W@W?

Also spent a whole night inducing scribble nauts hype, I don't want to over do it and end up disappointed like with spore... But a game where you can potentially battle long cat and cthulu while dressed as Gordon Freeman jump in a time machine and come back riding an ankliosaurus has my full attention and my $69.

Posted by: Migwelion on June 15, 2009 12:57 PM

We just got an old arcade machine at work - loaded with 4,000+ classics. Been playing Soccer World, Strikers 1945, Basketball and TMNT this morning... the graphics are of course blocky but the jumpin and playability is instant and so much fun!

Posted by: Mev on June 15, 2009 1:30 PM

In my journey into Final Fantasy VII I have come to the conclusion that Cloud Strife is less emo than he is the Holden Caulfield (of The Catcher in the Rye fame) of J-RPGs. Aeris functions as a female version of Caulfield's dead brother and Tifa is a romantic interest / Caulfield's sister who he cares about.

Other than that I beat another level in Disgaea DS while I was in the 7 hour car ride to a funeral in Parkes. Funerals are sad, Disgaea is funny, sue me.

Posted by: Jacob Martin on June 15, 2009 1:41 PM

Unlocked my final gold gun (shotgun) on CoD4 on Friday night, the question is will I actually use it now that the motivation of the challenges is gone or will I just go back to the inferior (but full of challenges/ranking opportunities)CoD:WaW?